Giving back and taking the heat for it

I work for a nationwide cable, internet and phone company. I really like what I do and believe I do a good job.

Growing up I was taught to give back to my community. I was raised to appreciate what I had and take time to help others. Community service was not something we were forced to do; it was just a part of our everyday lives. I remember in high school running a canned food drive at Thanksgiving with 2 friends. We were in danger of not meeting our goal. So we did what had to be done; we ran to the neighborhood next to the school and went door to door gathering donations until we were sure we had enough product to exceed our projected numbers. We never considered not meeting our goal.

So having been raised with this sense of community responsibility, I was thrilled to know the company I work for has this same passion. Each year, my employer has a day set aside for community care. Throughout the country thousands of employees spend thousands of hours of their own, personal time, working on projects to better their schools, local and national not-for-profits, parks, nature centers, the environment and much more. My employer has held this special day for the past 9 years. In that time, 1.3 million hours have been volunteered by 230,000 employees and their family and friends. These dedicated folks have worked on over 23,000 projects. This past Saturday was the designated day of giving back and in Michigan alone, more that 25 projects were completed.

Some projects do fall outside the actual Saturday Cares day and are held during the week. To coincide with Earth Day, a project was held at the Humburg Marsh in Trenton. Because this is in my extended neighborhood, I signed up for the project. For those of you who are not sure what or where this marsh is (don’t feel bad I had no idea) it is the last parcel of undeveloped land along the Detroit River. The land is opposite Humburg Island, just off Jefferson and Vreeland. Because this area is on an International waterway this marsh along with the island are part of an international cooperative with Canada. Much work was done on the political side to have this marsh be protected. Work continues as the Forest Service folks clear out plants and tree not indigenous to the area. The wildlife in the marsh is exquisite! So, our task was to plant trees. Lots of trees. Big trees, little seedlings and some bushes. Thanks has to go to DTE. They stopped in and dug the holes for the large tree, saving time and our backs. It was fabulous to see employees with their families prepare to get down and dirt all in the name of volunteerism. It was also renewing to watch a member of the senior leadership team and an entry level employee with just 90 days with the company, wrangling a tree in to the prepared hole, together. High 5’s all around as we completed the final step in planting each tree, the watering. At one point all of us planting the big trees looked up to race to get the next tree in the ground and we realized we were done. We had completed what would have taken the small staff at the marsh weeks to complete. Over in the seeding planting area the families, with kids as young as 5 were just completing their task. Rumor has it we planted 70 trees in under 2 hours.

The New Herald did a piece on the Mayor of Trenton and the Trenton City Council presenting a proclamation to the company I work for, recognizing their continued commitment to the communities where not only they do business but where their employees live. The piece discussed the Humburg project specifically. I felt a great sense of pride to be recognized in such a way. While it wasn’t recognition for me personally, it was a pat on the back for all of us at this company who choose to give back. I’ll say this and please know I am not attempting to elevate anyone’s opinion of me. But I work afternoons. So in order to be a part of project, I had to take a vacation day. I gladly took the day because I believe in the intent of the day and in project I worked on. Many of my colleagues also took personal time to work on the projects that touched their hearts. So you may understand why I was so saddened to read the comments people felt they needed to post on the New Herald website. While I firmly believe in free speech, I don’t believe our fore fathers created the 1st amendment for bashing and trashing volunteerism solely because of the company sponsoring the event. How can someone read about people giving of their time, energy and self and the only comment they can think to make is on the price of their cable bill or that their tech was late? Gee, makes me wonder…

Aside from working at the marsh, I was coordinator for a Literacy Day in SW Detroit on Saturday. My company partnered with City Year and LASED for this annual event run by Matrix. Matrix is a community service organization that runs, among many, many more projects, a federally recognized Head Start program. It was an honor to once again serve in the Mexican American community. I’ve been fortunate that this is my 3rd event within this community in as many years. My role was to coordinate all volunteers from roughly 12 service organizations as well as area corporate partners. Ideally we had hoped for 195 volunteers. The volunteers would be setting up, cleaning up, providing food and water for their fellow volunteers, working the various booths and assisting with crowd control. We also had to be sure all volunteers were registered and had been given event tee shirts. I’m thrilled to say that we did not have 195 volunteers we had 337! Everyone worked hard and despite the weather, the event was a huge success. Community leaders, business leaders and local activists made speeches and gave donations. Children heard stories; made books, played reading games and walked away with a bag of books they could call their own. The kids from City Year were a joy to work with and their passion for their tasks, be it assisting with registration or passing out maps never wavered. At the end of the event as I was putting the last if the supplies in my car, as my back was beginning to ache and exhaustion began to creep up, I noticed a small group of protesters. The protesters were demonstrating against the recent immigration laws signed in Arizona. While personally I don’t know enough about the law to comment on my feelings about it, I was dismayed to see it spill into this event. Yes you can argue the law affects the children but was this the proper forum for a protest?

I couldn’t help but wonder as I drove home if the newspaper comments or the demonstators would deter anyone from volunteering next year. Will the comments make someone think twice before giving of themselves for this or any community service event? Does our media broadcast enough about the good we do or does the bad sell more papers or bring in more viewers? It struck me then that while the local Fox station was at the Trenton sight for the entire time we were working, it was news of the moment, not news that would be used as the hook or lead story. It was filler, used only if nothing more exciting or glamorous came up. Funny that I never noticed the local ABC or NBC news vans at the Literacy Day until they were focusing on the protest. Did we send mixed messages to the kids? Protesting is more important than being a literate individual? I don’t know. While none of these comments or protests was directed at me personally, I will always take them, very personally.

For me, I’ll continue to give of my time, talents and funds to the causes that touch my heart. I will proudly proclaim my joy that I work for a company that nationwide hosted more than 250 community service project last week, And I will continue to take the heat for those who feel the need to subtract from the good in not only my community, but in me.